What are Your TechNOTs?

Jenna Freedman picked up on my post in which I confess that I ain't all that when it comes to tech applications, and comes clean about her techNOTsaviness.  Her confessions include:

I'm dreading this whole DTV conversion, cuz I have an oldish tv at home, and no cable.

I didn't have sound on my computer at home for years because I'd misplugged the speaker cables. And I used to be a theater electrician, so I know something about plugging.

I won't call this a meme or call anyone out, in particular, but what about you? Are you perceived as a techie or a "computer person" by your friends, but have areas of tech brown-out or ennui?  C'mon! Share your ignorance and techrankiness with the rest of us.  Who are we to mock? I just made my first chart, ever, in Excel only yesterday. In fact, it may have been my first ever use of Excel for a real project.   

Digital cameras leave you cold? Do you still literally DIAL your phone?  Still holding out for a revival of Betamax? Do you feel faint when a patron whips out an SD card and asks how he can put his picture on Match.com?  Do you think about a career change when you read proposed tech competencies for librarians? I know I have librarian friends whose only computer access is at work, by choice.

I'm not looking to hear from those with active loathing of all things tech, or from any evangelizing whiz kids (unless you are an evangelizing whiz kid with a secret shame you need get off your chest).  Most of us fall somewhere between Lud and Geek.  This confessional assignment is for you.    

Comments

[Dee]

No IPod, can't bother to take the time to upload all the CD's. And the 10+ year old TV has been all green for months. I was told that the red gun died. But it must have gotten better, now it's all red, no greens. Since I figure I will need to move to find a job post-degree, why buy another heavy appliance to tote across the country. The DVDs play beautifully on the laptop.

[Tim K]

Okay, I have the standard failure to connect with the time display on my DVD, VHS and TV. Not that I oculd not learn, but I just don't give a damn about having the time displayed one more place in my house.

[synaptikchaos]

I am a geek but I cannot use Excel for the life of me. I just never had a reason to use it during my time in school, or at any jobs, so I never learned it. Plus, I'm not mathematically-inclined, so it's just not a natural program for me to pick up. :p

[greenfisch]

I use rabbit ears to receive television waves when I watch television. The only reason my home computer is wireless is because we don't have internet service. I still make toast in a toaster... oh, wait. That hasn't changed yet, has it?

[K.R.]

Am I your only librarian pal who doesn't have a computer at home and doesn't want one? I also don't have a cell phone. I do have digital cable (I am so bourgeois), a DVD player, and a Nintendo DS. I am patently uninterested in Twitter and Second Life. I take pictures of things I watch on TV and post them on Flickr. I guess I lose in technologyland!

[W. Greg Taylor]

Oh My Gosh!...where to start?...let's just say that I currently do all my home working etc. with a 1998 iMac...

[Peter]

I'm anything but a techie, and I love my iPod fiercely. I'm also deeply married to e-mail, blog my dining and cooking over at Blogger, and have recently caved in and now find myself on Facebook far too often.

BUT: the big joke in our household is that I have a cell phone and turn it on perhaps once a week when I call the parents in Canada (cheaper on the cell than the land line). It's not a device for people to get in touch with me, but for me to get in touch with them.

Don't even ask me about Twitter, Second Life, and a few other things like that - my blank look doesn't need anymore practice.

[Emily]

Love it. We all have areas where we space out a bit, no matter how "expert" we may seem. For me, it's phones. Can I handle call waiting? Voice mail? Phone trees? No way. So nobody should get offended when I hang up on them. It's an accident. I swear. :)

[Catherine]

GinaP's comment about TVs could have been mine, except that we have only one TV in the house, it's from 1992, and we just last week unplugged the power strip because we haven't used it in months and it (and its attendant VCR and DVD player - yep, needed an RF converter for that) are drawing power they don't need. So yeah, we'd be dreading the DTV conversion over here, if we ever actually used the darn thing.

Do I have to turn in my NextGen Librarian Card if I know what Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and Second Life are, can explain them to others, but don't actually use them?

[GPS]

I used to be in charge of technology for a NPO with $36,000,000! I JUST last weekend bought a digital camera. Got myself a new cell phone for Christmas and still don't know how all the thingies work. And don't get me started on TV, DVDs and VCRs all working together - what is the legal limit for remotes?

[jessamyn]

I'm geek all the way with the computerish stuff, BUT... I can NOT figure out how to change the clock's time on my car radio. I have a cell phone but it doesn't work in my house so I'm not too savvy with it. I can't get my answering machine message remotely and, oh yeah, I STILL HAVE an answering machine, though the message tells people to email me.

[GeekChic]

Well... my screen name should tell you that people see me as a geek (I'm a sys admin). So what are my TechNots?

I don't have a cell phone (and thus can't text) because I just don't need to be that connected. I also don't IM for much the same reason.

I also don't get most of the social software scene: don't have a FaceBook account, nor MySpace, Twitter, Second Life, etc.

[K.G. Schneider]

Oh, and Second Life and gaming? Noooo, please, noooo....

[K.G. Schneider]

Fun meme...

Let me make the DTV thing a little easier for you. First, this only applies to nondigital TVs not connected to satellite or cable. Second, You can get a coupon for $40 off the converter you need -- more than one coupon, as well. Just don't do it TOO early, because the converters are still in development and you want to get the "final product." I got all this information from a human at a conference, but it's on the dtv dot gov website (except for the tip about not buying the converter too early). :-)

I have my analog side, as well. Good meme!

[Chadwick]

I'm not so hot with networking protocols. I also avoid command prompts when possible. My CSS positioning skills for layout could use some work. There...I said it. No jeering please. I'm still fit enough to deliver ass kickings.

[GinaP]

Okay, confessing here and perfect timing as this is something I was thinking of at home the other day.

So, yes, I'm that person among those I know that is generally thought of as the resident geek. I don't know why, but that's just the way it is. I'm online-anything friendly, I like gadgets, I work on a computer all day, still enjoy using at home after that, and, well, I apparently have a knack for figuring stuff out when it comes to technology. But...

I'm not all that thrilled with the DTV thing, either. We have 4 TVs in the house. Only 2 are used. We recently got a DVD player for one of them and found out we had to get an RF converter (??) so the two things (DVD and TV) could talk to each other. Apparently, that TV is old technology. But, um, it works for watching a movie when I fold the clothes, you know?

My dearest recently got me a Jeopardy game. We like games; I like trivia--she's good to me. Yeah. Um, can't use it. It won't talk to our TV as the TV only has a coax cable, and the game has these multi-part A/V cables. Apparently, we need another RF converter.

All this and we still don't have High-Def anything in the house.

We have computers. Two of them. I just enable wi-fi with our DSL about two weeks ago; this is about two YEARS after getting DSL. And ONLY because I had a work laptop at home with me. Our computers have speakers, came with them. But we don't have microphones (no Skype for us) and the video cards are just stand (no Second Life either).

Someone gave me a DVD burner for Christmas. It remains unopened and under my desk. Will I be making movies sometime soon?

Also, we don't own any kind of gaming system, but I am heartily addicted to online PacMan. Still, I don't think that makes me a "gamer". Any chance that makes me a "gamer"?